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Ashley Goddard
A young Texican wastelander turned Revolutionary. Born and raised on the North side of the Rio Grande, she would later join up with La Legion de la Gente, led by her future lover and husband; Pancho Mendoza. She would fight on his side until the day he cheated on her and led to her prompt departure, now fighting La Ciudadela as a lone wolf sniper. Biography Early Life Ashley was born to Sylvester and Makayla Goddard, the third of five children in 2247. Her father and older siblings hunted to maintain the family, while her mother took in laundry. At an early age, Ashley began to accompany her Father on his weekly hunting trips, watching as he bagged two or three Geckos with just his .308 hunting rifle. She quickly became interested in hunting and shooting and thus her Father began to teach her how to shoot, a skill she slowly became proficient in. She started off plinking away at old tin cans and chasing after young Mantises with an Air Rifle and by the time she was twelve she was off hunting with her Father and older brother with an old Varmint Rifle. Yet tragedy would befall the family when she was merely 15, her Father had taken some of the pelts from Geckos he had killed and had gone into the nearby town of Fort Brown to trade and sell them. On his way, however, he was ambushed by a group of Highwaymen, he went for his gun and got a bullet in the head for it. The Highwaymen stole everything he had on him, leaving his corpse naked in the sun. When news reached the Goddard family later that day, the family broke down. However, Ashley and her oldest Brother Nathaniel decided they wouldn't weep as the rest of their brothers and sisters were doing but rather hunt down the men who had killed their Father. Ashley and Nathaniel got their Rifles, some ammo, and ample provisions and set off. After asking around in Fort Brown, they were told that the local crooks hid in the ruins of an old coaching inn outside of town. Ashley and her brother set off for the inn and set themselves up in the scrubland that surrounded the inn, they then split up so that if one of them was killed there was at least someone who could go back to their family. That night as the local bandits rode back to the inn and the bar was opened up, they waited until the bar was full and then opened fire. Ashley fired around 83 rounds at the Inn, sometimes not even aiming but when the shooting was over, there was nothing but corpses of bandits lying outside the Inn or hanging over the railing. Inside the room was pockmarked with bullet holes and the whole place stunk of cheap booze as many of the bottles behind the bar had been shattered in their barrage of gunfire. As they searched the building, Nathaniel was killed by a wounded bandit, who put both barrels of his sawed-off Shotgun into him. Ashley pumped three rounds into the bandit, taking her brother's corpse into her arms she set him across the saddle of one of the horses outside, and promptly rode off towards home. Although their brother was dead, causing the family more grief, they were happy that the men that had killed their Father had been found and brought to justice. Ashley would go on to help run things around the family home and would be the main provider of food, she also would befriend a Texican merchant named Carlos Hernandez using him as a means of selling the Gecko and Bighorner pelts she got from her hunting without having to traverse the dangerous roads of South Texas. However when she was 18 most of her siblings were off living their own lives and with her Mother's death from Yellow Fever, she saw no more reason to hang around home and thus left home. Life as a Prospector She traveled around for some time, before encountering an old prospector at his camp one morning. The man introduced himself as Cliff and invited Ashley to join him for breakfast. Not having not eaten the day before, she accepted. Cliff then asked Ashley where she was going, and after conversing for a while, he offered to teach her his trade. A prospector in the old fashion sense, he would find old mines and harvest any leftover seams. A dangerous job, he nevertheless always wore a smile. He taught Ashley as he worked, showing her firsthand what to look for in the rock, and how to get it without dying. Their partnership lasted forty months, in which Cliff became a sort-of father figure for her, though she recognized he had his flaws. One of which would be his death. Cliff, like many men, had a weakness for "soiled doves" as he called them, spending his rare findings in brothels whenever he could. During one visit, however, he contracted an unknown STI, (likely a mutated strain of Syphilis) and passed two months later. Ashley was sad for a time, losing yet another father, but dove into her work to distract her. This would result in her rediscovering a small vein of Silver in late 2268. She had reopened a closed shaft in the hopes of shelter from a sudden storm, and had walked past without noticing it initially. When she was about to leave the next morning, however, she saw the light reflect off of it, and quickly began tracing it through the gloom. It turned out to run at least six feet along the wall and hopefully as deep as well. Knowing she would need new tools as well as more supplies, she marked down the map on her old atlas of Texas, and re-blocked the entrance with loose rock. The nearest town was Hidalgo, which was in the last days of Benedicto Aguado, though it didn't know that yet. She bought her tools and left the town as quickly as she could, having heard about the Comancheros well in advance. She returned to find her mine overrun with Pig-rats, the vermin having apparently moved right after she left. Her rifle served her well initially, but it was of little use in the narrow mine, so she thought of another way to clear the den. She settled on a small blasting charge, which she lit a fust on and tossed it into the depths of the mine. The resulting vibrations destroyed the aged supports, crushing not only the rats, but the majority of the cleared space. It took her three weeks to get back to where the sliver was, only to find it destroyed. Out of food and bitter, she abandoned the mine and moved on. She was fortunate enough to come across a lone Molerat while traveling away from the mine the next day, as she killed it easily and field dressed it, feeding herself until she reached another site. This one was an old copper mine, and she spent the next month gathering enough dust to be worth something. After tightly securing it, she headed for the nearest shop, in the small town of Amy's Rest. It was here that her life would change. Ashley had Proceeded La Legión de la Gente by only an hour, and by the time she had received her caps, Pancho Mendoza had begun his spiel. Ashley, at first just thinking the man interesting, soon was caught up in his message. After he was done speaking, Ashley stepped forward and pledged herself to the cause. La Legion de la Gente Ashley's initial introduction to the People's Legion was to follow the recruiter and her fellow converts back to the camp outside of town. From there it was onto Cresta Confederada where she and her fellow recruits joined the growing ranks of the People's Legion, she was introduced to her commander, a man named Simon Bulvar, and promptly began her training. As she was already a decent shot she was instead instructed in the use of explosives, setting traps and the tactics of a guerrilla fighter, she was also instructed in how to win the hearts and minds of a people and get their support. One key item that the Legion officers stressed was the use of whatever means to get community leaders on their side, even if it meant trading favors, or looking the other way upon injustices, stressing that all such crimes could be corrected when their war with the Citadel had ended. Yet Ashley would quickly earn notoriety within the Legion as she quickly became known as a crack shot. On her first day out she took down three Citadel troopers from 300 meters, impressing her male commanders. From that point onwards she would prove herself time and time again as an asset to the People's Legion as she took down Citadel officers, soldiers, and commanders from a distance, making herself a legend among Legionnaires and a sort of boogeyman among soldiers fighting for the Citadel. The peak of her career came when in the summer of 2072 when she managed to kill Bartolomeo Riza, a nobleman from The Citadel and one of the Kingdom's finest strategists. The death of Riza would forever scar his young former pupil; Arturo Vincente Gonzalez, who would swear vengeance against the killer of his former mentor. It was also during this time that Ashley became better acquainted with the Legion's commander; Pancho Mendoza. The two hit it off pretty well, and the two had soon begun to see each other. However, Pancho's Catholic faith troubled him as he continued to see Ashley and yet hadn't married her and for awhile their relationship was put on hold as Pancho led his revolutionaries against the Citadel and its army. However, his mind stayed with Ashley and eventually the two began to talk again. It was on February 3, 2278, that the two sealed their relationship. Marriage To avoid any accusations of favoritism or confrontation with other women, the couple decided to hold a private wedding, having only Hector Medina and a handful of their closest friends witness it. They took a short honeymoon outside of Cresta Confederada, which was cut short by the spring offensive. Ashley would spearhead the first few raids and attacks, but after returning to camp in mid-March, she quickly heard that Pancho returned to his old ways. Enraged she jumped back on her horse and rode out of camp, done with her philanderer husband and his legion. Defection Leaving the service of the Legion and taking her gear with her, Ashley headed off into the wastes in order to continue her fight solo. She took to acting as a lone sniper, using her chosen SKS to pick off soldiers of the Citadel from a distance, and continuing her reputation as a deadly marksman. However as her reputation grew, so did her enemies and one man she had wronged was out for her scalp; Arturo Vincente Gonzalez. The Coronel had watched in horror as his mentor, and commander Bartolomeo Riza had been killed by a bullet from Ashley and had sworn vengeance against her. Using his personal wealth and militia, he began to hunt for her, offering a bounty of 2,000 caps for her head and promising women, and riches to any man who would bring her in alive. Thus Ashley's life became a much more tedious one as she was forced to constantly watch her back, even being forced to avoid going to towns loyal to the Citadel, not to mention always having to be on the run from gangs of hired bounty hunters and mercenaries. However Gonzalez's militia; Los Leales finally caught up with her late one August night in 2279. As she slept, a group of Leales had been informed by a sympathizer in town that she had been in town to buy goods and was camped out somewhere outside of town. The Leales searched and found her camp, trying to sneak up on her she was awoken when one of her assailants broke a branch. Grabbing her SKS she shot her way out of the ambush and rode off on her horse. She fled from the Leales for nearly two hours, crossing nearly 20 miles of land but she eventually lost her pursuers and was able to rest for the remainder of the night. Her battle with the Coronel would drag all across the Border Country, however, at the end of the day she always came away clean, although the same can not be said for those who helped her in her campaign. However, on more than one occasion Ashley brushed close with death as she fought off mercenaries, bounty hunters (including some hired from the Rockport Mercenary Guild) and of course troops from the Citadel and members of Gonzalez's personal militia. Eventually, she ended up in the town of Nuevo Progreso in 2280. Currently Ashley hid here for a few months, once almost running headlong into a squad of her hunters before ducking into a clothing shop. The bounty hunters eventually left the town, allowing her to breathe easy for a time, before she too left the town and returned to the warpath. She realized that Gonzalez would hunt her for the rest of his life, so she planned to turn the tables. She would spread word of her presence as she headed south, saying that she was camped in some clearing of a nearby field. She would then ravel to an overlook of the 'camp' and wait for the bounty hunters, as soon as they would approach the tent she would fire, and leave the bodies where they fell. She made her way south until she was a scant dozen miles from the Citadel. This time, she would keep a tight lid on her identity as she scouted throughout the area before finding a small valley. She made a small camp here before spreading a rumor about herself in the shantytown. She lit a fire every night and morning to make sure they couldn't miss the spot, before she would hike up to her vantage point. It would be on April 5th, 2281 that she would get her wish. That afternoon she spied dust on the distance. Judging by the size of the cloud, it had to be more than twenty people on the way. She would see that the figure was 29, with Gonzalez at the heart of the lot. The Colonel proved himself yet again as a great tactician, when he stopped three-hundred feet from the tent and sent a pair of men forward. The two called out repeatedly as they neared the tent, and then opened it only to be replaced by a small flame cloud as a landmine detonated. This was Ashley's signal as she began shooting down the Colonel's men, none of whom knew what just happened. They began to panic before they realized that the shooting had stopped. Gonzalez ordered them forward, which they did warily, but found they weren't attacked until they crested another hill. These cat and mouse games would last three days, with Gonzalez never presenting himself for a great shot, until Ashley finally ran out of ammo. Gonzalez was unharmed, but almost all of his men had been left at his feet for no gain. She hoped the shame if nothing else would stop him, as she again managed to slip away. By October she had yet again thrown herself against the forces of the citadel as the final stages of the war wound up. The Legion's final, costly victory at La Ciudadela gave her a vague sense of accomplishment but little more than that. She regretted not assisting in the assault, even though she vowed never to see Pancho again. When she heard the news that both Ryan Quaker and Hector Medina were dead, she again considered returning but shook it off. A few days later she was attacked by men under orders from Gonzalez. Discovering that the Colonel still lived gave her a focus that had disappeared after the siege. She has followed the man south, stalking his every move and hunting every friend he has made. She is determined this will be the last chase for one of them and a final end to the war. By 2287 she is preparing for her attack on his villa. Equipment Ashley has always traveled light, keeping with her only what was necessary for survival and defense. Since leaving the Legion, she carries her Rifle, a blanket, change of clothes and around a hundred rounds of ammunition. In addition, she keeps several days of dried food in her small backpack as well, if she's waiting to ambush someone. Personality Ashley was born to a family of agnostic farmers and having spent most of her life watching those she cares about to be killed off one by one she possesses a very jaded and bleak outlook on life. No matter where she goes, she makes a point of not becoming too attached to anyone she comes across, to add she also has a penchant for brutality. She willingly tortures her enemies for information and even goes as far as threatening their families when the situation demands it or pertains to her survival. Appearance Coming in at two yardsticks tall, with her pulled back into a ponytail and a healthy tan, Ashley looks every bit of the waster that she is. Reaching her current height at 14, she could easily be described as lanky for the rest of her teens. She became more muscular during her time as a prospector, but she has become leaner since her time with La Legion. Her hair a shade near to platinum, due to her constant sun exposure, she has recently taken to wearing an old top-hat, found in an abandoned mineshaft she slept in. Quotes By About Category:Texas Category:Mexico Category:Tamaulipas